Low-cost carrier Spicejet on Monday said it has allotted 1.30 crore equity shares to BNP Paribas Arbitrage Fund out of the proposed preferential issue of 7.20 crore equity shares for over Rs 68 crore.
BNP Paribas Arbitrage Fund acquired about 1.30 crore shares, representing 5.43 per cent stake in the airline company through the preferential allotment, Spicejet informed the BSE.
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet on Thursday said it has appointed Partha Sarthi Basu as its new Chief Financial Officer.
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet has announced a promotional offer, under which 99,999 seats would be up for grabs at just 99 paisa each.
The tickets purchased under the offer, launched on the eve of Republic Day celebrations, would be valid for travel between February 15 to April 15.
These promotional seats will be available on all SpiceJet routes spanning 14 destinations with 84 daily flights, it said.
SpiceJet on Wednesday announced two additional daily flights from Mumbai, one each to Bangalore and Hyderabad, with both flights scheduled to leave early in the morning and return flights slated for the same evening.
Even as it is expected to post a net loss, the Delhi-based no-frills airline SpiceJet is reducing its financial year to ten months ending March 31, 2007, for operational reasons.
SpiceJet has followed financial year starting June. “For operational reasons and reporting convenience, we are reducing this financial year to 10 months ending March 31.
The SpiceJet management has invited the Tata group to take a seat on the board of the Delhi-based low cost airline. The Tata group company Ewart Investments had taken a 7% stake in the company with an investment of about $17 million, which does not entitle a board seat.
However, the SpiceJet management says the company’s experience will bring value to the board. The Tata group has said the investment in the airline is purely financial and has nothing to do with their earlier ambitions in the aviation business.
The low-cost airline SpiceJet on Thursday obtained approval from its shareholders for receiving $80 million from domestic and international investors, including the $17 million from the Tatas.
Apart from the Tatas, other investors include the Dubai-based Istithmar ($25 million), Goldman Sachs ($5 million) and BNP Paribas ($15 million).
The US-based private equity fund Texas Pacific Group, which had recently decided to invest $30 million in low-cost carrier SpiceJet, has decided to pull out of the deal.
Though sources in investment banking circles cited differences over valuation, senior SpiceJet executives told ET that the US-based fund has expressed its inability to participate in this round of fund-raising by the low-cost carrier as its top management was busy with an ongoing $11 billion deal for buying out Australian airline, Qantas, by a consortium of private equity players. “They have told us that they will re-visit us in the near future,” said Siddhant Sharma, CEO, SpiceJet.
SpiceJet has targeted to increase its market share to 15 per cent by 2007 from the current nine per cent in a market size of 32 million passengers, which is growing at 35 per cent annually.
The airline, which has a seat capacity of 12,000, is confident of achieving the target as it introduces more aircrafts and destinations in the next few months.
Low cost carrier Spicejet hopes to achieve financial break-even this fiscal subject to costs remaining constant. The airline expects to post a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore in 2006-07 against Rs 481 crore last year, said Spicejet vice-president (sales & planning) Sanjay Kumar at a press conference here on Monday.
“We achieved operational breakeven last year. We hope to achieve financial breakeven this fiscal, provided variable costs like fuel prices remain constant till the conclusion of the fiscal,” said Mr Kumar. Prices of aviation turbine fuel remained stable until December 2006, but witnessed a hike this month. If it continues at the present level, achieving breakeven should be possible, he added.
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